The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-07-14
The Fourth in Philadelphia.

HON. JOHN S. WISE S GREAT SPEECH.
The Fourth Of July celebration IN indie
pendendence Square, Philadelphia, was
one of the greatest demonstration that has
occurred in the city Of Brotherly Love
since it's formation. The civic and mill
tary displays, and the enthusiasm nantes
| ted on the occasion was such as to inspire
| the ardor and revive the spirit of liberty
among the people. No incident Of the
celebration touched the feelings and vital
lied the emotions of the vast concourse
more than thespeech of Hon. j ohm S. Wise,
the invited orator of the occasion, His
speech was as follows:
Mr.. Chairman and fellow citizens: l
received with unfeigned qualification your
handsome compliment which babe me come
here to-day to meet my fellow citizens of
| PENNSYLVANIA in common Grafton of indie
pendence day. l received it, not only as
a handsome personal compliment at which
any man might be proud, but as evidenc-
| ing the thoughtful, patriotic and catholic
| spirit which is, and has ever BEEN the dis
| tinguishing characteristic OF your city and
| her people.
| OF all spots on earth this is best fitted to
hold and keep and guard the bell which
| rung out the first tidiugs of American lib
| erty. OF all spots on earth this is the most
appropriate for the people to assemble
| from time to time and recur to the great
principles on which that liberty is founded.
Applause.
TO YOU was allotted but decade since
the honor of celebrating the completion OF
our first century of national life. Your
noble performance of the great task was at
| Of do
| der.
| To you belongs peculiarly the preserya-
| ton of the mementoes and traditions OF
our nations natal day, and from among
you shall go forth to the people OF our land
whenever liberty is endangered. the claDg
of that bell whose voice shall rouse them,
as did the burnt cross of the Highlands
| when it was sent forth to the clans.
| Great is the trust of Americans III you,
| but not greater than your deserving. The
secret of that confidence lies in the deep
earnestness of character which has ever
marked Philadelphia and her people. Less
ambitious for surface display less bizarre
| in taste and mode of life; less volatile
!, and demonstrative less pFetentlous and
less plausible than some other communl-
ties, Philadelphians from the time OF her
foundation, have shown such conservatism
and thorough intensity il thought and &C
ton; have moved so deliberately in the
selection of their principles, and when
those principles were chosen, have adhered
! to them so steadfaStly and uncOmprOmlS-
ingly have resolved upon their courses so
considerably, and once determined upon
| have carried them out SO unfinchingly that
| they stand pre-. eminent in popular conh-
| dence as earnest, honest men, Who never
give pledge until they eau stamp it with
the sterling mark OF their purpose to re-
deem it; who never enter upon an under
taking until they are certain they eau COM
plete it even better than they promise, re-
CARELESS of cost and trouble.
| Such, fellow citiZenS-and | say it In no
spirit of flattery-is the Judgment Of the
outside world of the Philadelphia charac
ter. 1t is glorious heritage to your chill
dren 1t makes you worthy custodianS OF
the sacred things entrusted to your keep
| ing. and it causes me to appear before you
| Tor brief space in this l11th year OF our
| liberty, as to whether we are worthy of the
precious boon handed down to us and are
| improving the talent entrusted TO us by
our forefathers.
| 1 shall be brief Neither the time at
| our disposal nor the occasion admlds OF
| long discussion or prolixity. To Fourth
of July Grafton, above all others, the Shaks-
perean aphorism applies that "a little more
| than little is by much too much.
MECHANICAL IMPROVEMENTS.
Benjamin Franklin [applausel writing
! from Philadelphia about hundred years
ago, reported thai he had run here from
New York in tWenty-siX hours. He
| thought it was remarkably expeditions
| trip, and did not doubt the time would
| come when the trip could be accomplished
| between sunrise and sunset. Contemplate
| ing the two hours journey of to-day be-
| tween New York and Philadelphia, | think
| it is safe to congratulate ourselves upon
| the advances we have made in the means
| of locomotion. Applausel. 1t required as
much time for Thomas Jetferson to travel
| from Monticello to Philadelphia hun
| bred years ago, as it would take to bring
Mr.. Blaine back from Europe, but in the
| language of The modern poet, Thomas JEFF
| ferson, ''got there all the same" and he
not only got there, but he got there in
homespun, and he produced a document
never equaled before or since in my hum
| Bile judgment filled with great philosoph-
\ ical truths and maXimS OF government
4 unapproached by the utterances ofaany
| statesman of our day. We are far ahead
of our ancestors in the science Of educa-
1 tion. We have a literature, the growth OF
4 the last century, which was utterly lacking
4 to our ancestors, and which contains many
gems of which we are justly proud Yet
with all these advantages we have produ-
ced nothing comparable to the mlsspeit
| farewell address of George Washington.
| Our architecture, both in vastness and
| beauty, is great improvement upon that
/ of our ancestors. Our public buildings
everywhere are incOmparably the superior
OF the humble and ungalnly structures
which they reared. But ever and anon the
painful query c0nfrontS us-Can we ill
them with the eloquence and the historic
intellect and dignity of the men who oc-
cupled the public buildings OF our ANGER
| tors
The spirit of our age is essentially diff
ferent from that of our forefatherS. Ours
is period intensely practical-one which
thinks as strongly and as clear and deep
as any that has marked the history OF the
world. 1t not only thinks, but it's great
strength lies in its power Of applied thought
and action. We waste no time in theorlz-
| ing. What men called eloquence 100 years
ago we call verhosity. We think, and act,
| and complete in the same period of time
which they occupied in theorizing and dis
cdsslng. But we are leaving behind us no
such immortal reasons fOr our action. The
great contrast between the Revolutionary
period and our own, and the only one in
which perceive any very marked advan-
tage in their favor is this Ours is a pc
Rod of thought, unadorned, beautiful and
strong, applied to facts and speaking in
physical results. Theirs WAS an age of
| deep philosophical abstraction, us well as
great political, moral results. What we
are doing in the way of advancement is to
a great extent physical and perlshabIe.-
What they did survives to us in freshness
and in truth, as applicable to US to-day as
it was to them and it will be as applicable
to our defendants 1000 years hence as it is
to us in the present.
doubt whether the history of the world
ShOMs q mr. c1lrarh q inl